Nearly Perfect (Ericsson R380s)

Member Name: bigjimbo

Product:	Ericsson R380s
Date:	11/07/01 (275 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Small (ish), No need for Mobile phone & PDA, POP3

Disadvantages: Battery Life disappointing, Small Bug in Synch software, No software updates

First off, this is a great little phone. It does was it says, the handwriting recognition works, the calender does what you need (possibly a bit too much), the contacts area stores everything you could ever want, the WAP is great on the bigger screen etc. etc. (oh, and it makes phone calls as well).
However, the important thing is what doesn't work so well. For a device that is supposed to make your life easier, does it have any of those little quirks that are going to push your blood pressure through the roof?
Not really, but it does have a few problems.
Others have mentioned a problem with the backlight switching off and not coming back on as it should. Well, that has been fixed in the latest version.
However, battery life is quite poor. I use mine quite a bit (mainly as a PDA), but if it goes more than 24hrs without a charge if runs really low.
There seems to be a slight "memory leak" in the software. Even if you clear all your old data out, it still shows low in the available memory until you "reboot" it.
Although it stores outgoing e-mail and SMS messages, there is no outbox. First I knew of them was when I saw the available space was getting tight in my messaging and there was hardly anything in there. You have to do a Find on " ", and then delete your sent mail one at a time. A real pain in the perverbial.
The menu structure when using it as a normal phone is not as good as a Nokia. But then, with the flip open, it's ten times better. Swings and roundabouts.
Overall though, it does what it promises, it keeps me in contact with the things I want, where I want, and (most important), I forget things less often.

Summary: